Pluto plain resembles frozen mud cracks on Earth

Updated: Saturday, July 18, 2015, 18:15 [IST]

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Washington, July 18: A close-up image of Pluto has revealed a vast, craterless plain -- resembling frozen mud cracks on Earth -- that appears to be no more than 100 million years old and is still being shaped by geologic processes.

This frozen region is north of Pluto's icy mountains, in the centre-left of the heart feature named Tombaugh Region after Clyde Tombaugh who discovered Pluto in 1930.

"This terrain is not easy to explain. The discovery of vast, craterless, very young plains on Pluto exceeds all pre-flyby expectations," said Jeff Moore from NASA's Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, California.